Syria: Aleppo battle rages. Rebels kill 40 cops, sources say

Army kills 400 rebels.Gov't denounces Turkey, Qatar and S.Arabia

(ANSAMed) - BEIRUT, JULY 31 - The battle for Aleppo and
Damascus continues to rage, while abroad, the opposition to
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad jockeys for position in what it
sees as an imminent transition of power.

The area of Aleppo will ''soon be liberated,'' conservative
Sunnite leader Hathyam al-Maleh, whom some opposition groups
gathered in Cairo charged with forming a transitional
government, said in a press conference on Tuesday. ''The
transitional government will be formed in consultation with all
opposition forces. Its members will be non-affiliated, and it
will work towards a civilian state, not a theocratic or military
one,'' al-Maleh said.

In Aleppo today, insurgents killed 40 police officers,
according to the Syrian Observatory on Human Rights, and 60% of
the city is under rebel control, according to an al-Jazeera TV
correspondent who entered the city with rebel forces.

Security forces today discovered a rebel-dug tunnel
connecting the Kisani mosque, in Aleppo city center, with a
wedding banquet hall in the south-western neighborhood of Salah
al Din, a rebel stronghold that has come under heavy government
artillery fire, security sources said.

Aleppo civilians are ''terrorized and seeking shelter in
schools, mosques and public buildings,'' according to office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.

Also in Aleppo the military killed 400 ''terrorists'' who
attacked the governor's office, the military tribunal and the
Baath Party headquarters near Saadallah Jabri Square on Tuesday,
according to government security sources. Another 150 insurgents
were captured, the anonymous sources said. A Libyan sharpshooter
on a roof was apprehended, Damascus-based pro-government daily
al-Watan reported.

With regard to Damascus, while intense fighting is ongoing in
all the city's suburbs, which have come under heavy government
fire, eyewitnesses told ANSA.

Violent clashes have been reported in Qusdaya, Qatana,
Jaramana and Dweila, in the east, and rebel arms caches were
discovered in government raids in Harasta, in the north.

Also on Tuesday, Syria's foreign ministry sent UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon two letters denouncing the ''criminal
behavior'' of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who are arming and
financing the ''terrorists who are killing civilians and
destroying public and private property,'' pro-government news
agency Sana reported. (ANSAMed).